Mathematician, entrepreneur, and software engineer Hans-Werner Hector has an estimated net worth of $1.8 billion as of March 2013. Born on January 17, 1940 in Kaiserslautern, Germany, he graduated with a degree in Mathematics from the University of Saarland. He has worked for IBM in Mannheim where an idea of the potential managerial standard software came up.

In 1972, Hector, Hasso Plattner, Claus Wellenreuther, Dietmar Hopp and Klaus Tschira founded the software company SAP AG or SAP System Analysis and Program Development in Walldorf. After the IPO, the company has grown and he was responsible for the development of the business. Since then, his fortune has grown with an estimated net worth of $1.8 billion. According to Forbes, he is the 51st richest person in Germany and the 831st in the world.

Hans-Werner Hector also built up the North American market for SAP. However, he left the company in 1997 after a falling out situation with his partners. He sold the majority of shares in 1996 and the proceeds made him an estimated $2 billion richer. He made investments start-up software, biotechnology, and health companies.

As a trained mathematician, Hector holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Karlsruhe for his contribution in the promotion of mathematics, natural sciences and technology among gifted students by conducting the so-called Hector seminars. He also started the HW & J. Hector Foundations provides money to cancer and AIDS research as well as for the art and historic preservation. He and his wife donated more than $600 million in 2011 for the renovation of the city museum in Weinheim. In September 19, 2003, the couple received the Federal Cross of Merit. They are also a recipient of the 2013 Hector Medal of the State of Baden-Wurttemberg.